


The Shield of Eden

by SerasLex



Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: Action, And Devils May Cry, Angels, Angst, Angst and Humor, Angsty Forty Yearolds, Angsty However Old Nero Is, Arcaccia Swears a Lot, Attempt at Humor, Big Brothers, Demons, Devil Triggers, Dysfunctional Family, Eventual Romance, Everyone is so badass, F/F, F/M, Family Drama, Family Feels, Family Secrets, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Goth OC, Hybrid OC, Inappropriate Humor, Mommy Issues, Mystery Character(s), Not a traditional Reader Insert, OC insert, Rating May Change, Religious Conflict, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, WIP, angsty teens, badass OC, haha i'm punny, more tags to come, oc is 18, trigger warnings apply
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-13
Updated: 2019-02-18
Packaged: 2019-10-27 07:27:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17762426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SerasLex/pseuds/SerasLex
Summary: Arcaccia was a relatively normal goth teen when suddenly, the demon crisis became more real to her than ever before. Her life and relationships with everyone that she loves is put on hold as she works to master her gifts and face her destiny as a guitar-strumming, demon-slicing, hot-head.She is the Shield of Eden.Note: OC can easily be changed in your head to fit your description instead, that's why I'm marking it as an "x Reader" as well. Aside from that, just have fun. ;)





	1. Awakening

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everyone is at least 18 years old. This is mainly said because Arcaccia is a senior in high school, but she's been 18 for a few months when the story begins, so don't worry about underaged crap, 'cuz I don't do that, m'kay? Anyway, feel free to leave criticisms and stuff in the comments and let me know if something is worded weirdly. I might fix it; I might not. Depends if I care enough.

I woke on the cold, concrete floor with a throbbing skull and a sharp ache in my ribs. I groaned involuntarily as I lifted myself up onto my elbows just enough to look around me; my ribs stabbing me in protest and my skull throbbed more intensely. The room around me was dark, but was slightly illuminated by a light further down a dark hallway. It looked as though I was in a prison cell, but the dilapidated state of the room around me and the lack of life nearby told me that it must have been something else aside from the law that retained me to this cell.

Picking my brains, I tried thinking of how I ended up here and – better yet – how to get out.

Two Days Prior:

I laughed as my best friend and I insulted each other and talked about our day. She feigned a gasp when I said that she looked like some poor horse that someone smeared lipstick on, countering that I looked like death, if death was a heroine addicted hooker that would bend over a trash can for ten cents. “Well, ten cents is ten cents.” I said as I winked at her.

We were an unlikely pair. She was bubbly and cheerful. Always wore bright colors and rocked everything she wore, but had a mean streak. She low-key hated everyone and everything. She was tanned with board-straight, light blonde hair that went down to her waist, blue-green eyes that sparkled whenever she smiled or when she was angry. She was skinny and kind of resembled a pancake as far as curves went, but that was due to her being both on the track team and cheer. In other words: she was drop-dead gorgeous.

I, on the other hand, was quiet but content. I was bold and talkative when the situation called for it, but I preferred to remain silent and play my hand close to my chest any other time. I was always optimistic, but with heavy realist undertones. I always wore either black jeans or black leather pants, a black leather jacket, and some sort of band or videogame graphic tee. My eyes were greenish gray and my wavy hair was dyed to resemble fire and stopped just before my shoulders; I didn’t like long hair because it got in the way of my day to day functions. I was quite short, standing at five feet and not a hair over, and I was quite curvy. I always smiled, even when I was pissed off, which was a little off putting for some people since I wore black lipstick and cat-eye eyeliner. I was a happy goth with okay-ish looks. I was a band geek that played the glockenspiel during band class and acoustic guitar for our jazz band.

We said our goodbyes and I left out of the band room doors. We had just finished school for the day and I was walking to my bike with my gig bag strapped on my back and lugging my school bag by the handle. When I got to my motorcycle, I saw that the lock I had put on the gas cap had been busted. My stomach sank in disappointment and I was pissed. I twisted the cap off and peeked inside using my phone as a flashlight and saw that only a quarter of my remaining gas looked like it had been siphoned. The fact that only a little bit had been stolen was a relief, and meant that I did not have to walk a heavy-ass motorcycle to the nearest gas station; which was a "Mom and Pop Shop" five blocks away. I unlocked the compartment behind the seat and threw my backpack in, slammed it shut and locked it again.

Just as I had gotten on and started my bike I heard a thunderous uproar to my right. I whipped my head around and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. There was a horde of monsters attacking the other students as they were leaving the school. People were running in terror as they were being cut down by the fangs and claws of the hellish beasts. It was horrific. I was frozen in terror and disgust for what was happening until I heard a bone chilling and ear piercing howl, panting and crashing footsteps coming from my left. I turned and saw a pack of red-eyed monsters bounding towards me on all fours. Snapping out of it, I gunned my bike and almost ran over a freshman boy as I swerved between cars and over the curb. I made it the road adjacent to my school and hightailed the hell out of there, the pack of demons still chasing after me, but they were beginning to slow down as I gained more speed.

Just as I thought that I had lost them, I crossed an intersection when I heard a car to my left. Before I could think, all I felt was excruciating pain and the feeling you get when you’re flying before I blacked out.

I came to what must have been seconds later and three men in suits got out the car. I saw something poking out of my stomach and chest and idly noted that the neck of my guitar was poking out of my abdomen. I was leaning up against something cold and hard, my right leg was pinned painfully under my left and my arms hung limp at my sides. The men approached me like hunters approach a rabbit caught in their trap. They were unnaturally calm as one of them bent down and began to lift me. The pain from moving my injuries made me lose consciousness once more.

It was either the memories of the events that took place or the possible concussion that I had that made me nauseous, maybe both, but I found myself standing on my hands and knees and puking up what felt like a stomach full of acid. When my stomach was thoroughly empty, I wiped my mouth and I noticed footsteps approaching. I sat back on my haunches and saw a potbellied man with slicked-back black hair coming towards my cell. The lights in the hallway and my cell suddenly came to life, flickering feebly at first, like a person waking from a deep sleep.

He wore a black pinstripe suit and black dress shoes that clicked with every step he took, and his fat face had the deep smile lines of a happier man. The grin on his face was sadistic in the nature of it not meeting his dead shark eyes. He stopped about a foot from the bars and he chuckled. “Sleep well, little Arcaccia Edenshield?”

I knew that I should have been afraid, but all I felt was a roaring rage and clawing hunger for vengeance. And maybe a burger or something, ‘cuz my food baby was starving. I rose to my feet despite the stabbing pain going through my body and trudged over to the bars, seething the whole while.

My ever present smile crept onto my face as I got closer. “I can show you exactly where you can shove your question, asshole. You might as well put it back into your mouth because it’s not too different from the other place.”

He looked slightly taken aback by my reaction before his grin grew larger. His voice was almost sing-song as he spoke. “No need to be so hostile, little miss Eden. I’m your friend, and I have a proposition that will greatly benefit the both of us.”

He paused to see if I would respond, but all I did was glare at him harder then he continued as he did before. “You get to live and maybe even gain your freedom, and you do whatever we say, when we say. All you have to do is sign this here contract.”

He produced a rolled up parchment and an expensive looking pen from his pocket and handed them to me through the cell bars, which I took from him with caution. I opened the rolled up paper and pretended to scan its contents. “And if I refuse?”

“Then you die here, in this cell. I’ll give you time to think about it.” He almost began walking away when I responded.

“No need.” I said as I scrawled “GO TO HELL” across the whole document and ripped it down the middle. With a smirk, I snapped the pen, which sprayed over the front of his suit. “I refuse to serve you and whatever the hell it is you stand for, and I won’t go out without a fight.”

He sighed and grabbed the handkerchief out of his breast pocket and began dabbing feebly at the ink on his jacket before deciding it was pointless and throwing it on the ground. “Very well. If you wish to face my wrath, then you shall die screaming for mercy.”

I actually laughed. Honest to God, I cackled like a mad woman. Don’t bother asking why, ‘cuz I don’t understand what had gotten into me either. “If you’re so dangerous, why don’t you come closer to the bars then, huh? Too scared of a little woman?”

He growled in anger, as he stepped up to the bars and began to shift form into a grotesque walking corpse that had fat, red boils growing in various places on his body and face. I recoiled in shock and disgust as he tore through the bars of the cell and prowled towards me. The stench was horrible, like burnt hair and rotting meat. I was quick to grab the back off the toilet and hurl it at him and it shattered against him, but he acted like nothing had hit him and he pressed closer to me. In desperation I punched him square in the jaw and he stumbled back a few feet with a grunt of pain.

I saw my hand and my fingers looked more like an eagle’s talons instead of what was normal. My pale flesh looked gray and scaly. I was horrified, but I had a more pressing matter to deal with first.

The corpse swung its burly fist at my head and I ducked before coming back up with an uppercut to his jaw and I spun around and landed a flying kick to his chest, which knocked him to the floor. Just then, a door down the hall banged open and I heard gun shots and shouting. There were plenty of the ear piercing howls that I had heard before, but they were quickly silenced. I felt even more trapped.

The corpse man sprung to his feet and lunged at me again, but I dodged him again and tripped him, making him tumble to the ground again. I heard the shouting of two men and two sets of sprinting footsteps thundered down the hallway before two men with white hair appeared before the cell.

“Either stay away or help me!” I shouted. One of them, a man in what looked like to be his mid-forties wearing a red trench coat raised a pistol at me. “Wait I-“ I was cut off by two gun shots. I clenched my eyes shut, when I heard an odd sound behind me. I cracked an eye open and saw the man in the red trench coat holster his pistol with a smirk. I turned and saw the corpse man disintegrate into a pile of ash, a wicked looking dagger appearing in the pile. Keeping the men in my vision, I picked up the knife and gave it a once over before fastening the sheath to my belt.

“Who are you?” I asked the men as they stepped into my cell and were looking around. The red trench coat guy answered. “I’m Dante and that kid there is Nero. You?”

“Everyone calls me ‘Eden’.”

“As in ‘Edenshield’?” I nodded an affirmative before he continued. “We’ve been looking for you. You should come with us.”

I looked him and Nero up and down as I replied. “No offence, but why should I trust you or that guy over there?”

Nero was the one to respond.

“Because your life and those of everyone you love depend on it, princess. No offence.”


	2. Hidden Truths

I laughed a bit while crossing my arms and cocking my hip out to the side. “You seriously expect me to believe that? Where’s your proof, huh? I’m not some damsel in distress!”

Nero smirked a little “Actually, you kinda are. We just saved your ass. You owe us.” He stepped closer and we were almost chest to chest. The silverette stood two heads taller than me, so I had to look up to maintain eye contact.

“No, whoever sent you here in the first place owes you. Lemme see: armed to the tooth and thuggish in nature. You and Sir Smiles-a-Lot over there are sell swords. You didn’t do this out of the kindness of your hearts, you were sent here by someone.” I stepped closer and my hand gripped the handle of my knife as we were almost nose to nose. Well, more like nose to coat, but you get what I meant.

“Yeah, sent here to save your stupid ass. So you’re coming with us whether you like it or not.” Nero was clearly becoming frustrated and shoved me hard. I stumbled back a little, but I easily regained my balance.

“Like hell I am! Ahh!” I squeaked as my whole world was suddenly turned upside-down.

“Okay you two. That’s enough of that. We should get out of here.” Dante said after he effectively slung me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. I kicked the empty air and pounded on his back.

“Let me down, dammit! What do you think I am?! Cargo?! Lemme go!” I continued to struggle in his hold as he simply laughed. “Essentially, you are, for now. Let’s get back to my shop, it should be safer there.”

As we climbed the stairs to reach the ground level, his hand slipped down from my back down to my rear. I propped myself up enough to smack him on the head and shouted at him “Hey! Don’t push your luck, jackass! I’m this close to shanking you when you let me go!”

He winced at the momentary pain I had caused him, before returning his hand to my lower back with a chuckle. As we reached the ground floor I had to close my eyes to adjust to the bright light from the afternoon sun pouring in through the windows and was stabbing me in the eyes. We made our way out to the street and people stared at the spectacle that was me being kidnapped again by the two mercs. I propped myself up with my elbow digging into Dante’s back, my other hand swinging freely.

Nero seemed oddly satisfied with the happenings. We made eye contact and he smirked. “How’s the ride?” All I did in response was extend my middle finger at him with my free hand then let it flop back down and effectively punch Dante in the back once more. “Can you settle down back there? My back’s starting to kill me.” Smirking, I slapped his back again, but was quickly dumped on the ground of a dark alleyway. I landed on my rump with a thud and a whine of pain. “Ow!”

Dante extended his hand for me to get up, which I ignored and picked myself up and dusted off the seat of my leather pants. “Thanks for that,” which was meant to be a sarcastic grumble, but sounded more like whining and sulking, so I stopped myself from elaborating on the embarrassing predicament.

Instead, I decided that now was a good time to make a break for it. I saw the opening of the alley way and sprinted towards it, all the while screaming my head off like they teach children to do in school when addressing stranger danger.

However, I didn’t get very far before a hand clamped over my mouth and there was an arm wrapped around my waist, which effectively muffled my cries and hoisted me up in the air. Once we came over to where two motorcycles lay in waiting, Nero set me down and pulled me over to a bike and made me get on in front of him and mounted behind me. He started the bike, revved the engine then shouted to Dante “I’ll bring her over to your shop!” and we were off.

Dante must have taken off not too long after us because he quickly caught up and rode on our left. Exhaustion from today’s events quickly caught up with me as I crossed my arms and slumped against Nero’s chest. Sleep quickly claimed me once more; the release from consciousness was a small comfort.

I woke up as we pulled up in front of an old, brick building with neon lights reading “Devil May Cry” across the front with the outline of a woman to the right of it. It was an eyesore, and looked more like it belonged on the front of a strip club or something. I would know: my dad owned a few since before my older brother and I were born. I figured Dante to be the type to frequent the shadier ones.

Since there was no point in running, I hopped off the bike after Nero. Those two would just catch me again, and I didn't want Dante's hands over me more than they have been already. The sun was setting beyond the horizon behind the store, which set a shadow across the storefront and streets below, which brought out the pink neon lights of Devil May Cry . “Nice place.” I muttered sarcastically “Wonder where he got the idea from…” As we entered the store, I crinkled my nose at the messy state of the shop “He calls this a business?” I picked up an old, greasy pizza box from the ground and a dirty magazine fell out of the soggy flap. It was dirty in two different senses of the term, if you catch my drift.

Disgusted, I punted the box across the room and Nero cackled with laughter at my reaction as an annoyed growl sounded behind me. “Seriously? That’s what you do when you walk into someone else’s store? You should be ashamed.” Dante muttered as he picked up the magazine off the floor and dusted it off. “I’ve been looking for this little beauty.”

“Seriously? I should be ashamed? You and your ‘store’ are absolutely deplorable. How are you _not_ embarrassed?!” I put my hands on my hips and glared up at the silverette. Nero snorted with more laughter. “She’s awesome!” he walked up to Dante and slung and arm over shoulder “Can we keep her?"

“Absolutely not! I have a life somewhere far, far away from here that I need to get back to. Music to play and a job to keep. All that jazz.” The smile on Nero’s face dropped a bit as I said that. “Yeah, about that…”

He walked over to desk and picked up an unrolled newspaper that was laying there. “You should read this. Walking over to him I saw it was my town’s local newspaper. The front page read “DEMON PANDEMIC DESTROYS LOCAL SCHOOL”. My stomach dropped and I felt sick again; my classmates had been cut down in front of me, and all I did was run. The memory of the day's events flooded back to me.

With shaking hands, I grabbed the newspaper and began reading. I didn’t realize that I had started sobbing uncontrollably, until I saw my best friend’s name written in the memorial below with all the other corpses that had been identified. Megan Jacobs. She was my best friend, my sister from another mother and mister, and she was killed indiscriminately by those monsters, and I ran like the horrible coward that I am.

Dante placed a hand on my shoulder and pulled my head to his chest. I let the paper fall to the ground as I twisted my fists into his coat and just let it all out. I mean that it all came out. There was a cat that died in the eighth grade that I hadn’t fully mourned, all my frustration and all the little disappointments from day to day life just flowed out of me. I couldn't remember the last time that I let myself cry, now that I think of it. As I finished ugly crying, I started hiccuping and Dante let me go and I untangled my fingers from his trench coat. So much for keeping his hands off of me, right?

“Your father and brother are still safe. They were the first ones to contact us to find you.” My voice was hoarse as I attempted to compose myself some more. “Thanks and… sorry for that.” He just smiled before I continued. “What do you mean by, 'first'? There were others?”

He nodded and new voice came from behind me. “Yes, but not all of them had your best interest at heart. Most were just looking for someone much like you: someone that’s not entirely human and hadn't been awakened yet."

It came from a tall man with black hair and a black trench coat that was leaning against the door frame to the shop doors. I turned to see him fully. His arms and chest were covered entirely in black tattoos that went all the way up his throat. His arms were crossed over his chest and he had a silver cane in his right hand and a large, leather-bound book sat perched in his left. He was more goth than me, having mastered the emo persona and muttering. I looked like a Barbie doll in comparison. When he got here, I wasn’t quite sure, but he seemed like he had settled there for quite a while. Perhaps he had been there the whole time and just blended in with the shadows.

“What do you mean by ‘not entirely human’? Apart from my fashion choice and personality, I think I’m perfectly normal and _human_.” I was trying to regain my hardass, no-can-do attitude that I was using with Nero and Dante earlier, but that’s hard to do when your voice is trembling.

“Your mother was not completely human, and neither was your father. Somehow, your mother deceived an angel into coupling with her and that made you: You’re a quarter succubus and half angel. You’re not as normal as you might think.” He said, peering at me from under his bangs, maintaining a cool and collected monotone.

"What was your name again? I didn't quite catch it earlier." I said, resisting the urge to throw something at him and his know-it-all attitude.

"I have no name."

I sighed. I knew that he was just going to come up with some cheesy joke or whatever; I saw it in his green eyes. So I decided to throw him off a bit. "Okay then, Chuckles. Save me from whatever stupid joke you cooked up."

Just as I planned, it definitely threw him off of his point. He gave me a surprised look, before giving me a devious smirk. "You can call me 'V'."

"Okay, Chuckles." From the corner of my eye, I saw Dante had gone over to the desk and was now sitting at it with his feet propped up, his own amused smirk on his face. With introductions out of the way, I continued.

“You do realize that you’re claiming that I’m a bastard and the my mother was a whore, right? Where is your evidence? How would you know?”

V clapped his book shut while pushing himself off of the door frame “That’s easy.” He pointed his cane at me and a swirl of black protruded from the end. Time slowed as the panther-like creature flew at my face and I bent over backwards; avoiding getting mauled by mere inches. It flew over and landed on all fours, it spun around and was about to attack, but saw that there was no immediate danger coming from me so it laid down and began licking its paw, all the while watching me lazily.

“Are you crazy?! You trying to kill me?!” I reared at him and noticed that my voice sounded distorted. His smirk lay ever present as he responded “Maybe a little bit, but that’s not what you should be concerned about. He said as he pointed to the mirror on the wall. I turned and froze. Looking back at me was not my normal reflection, but a different me entirely. My eyes were glowing silver, long fangs protruded from under my upper lip and stopped a quarter inch below my bottom lip. Large, white and gray wings protruded from my back, the tops resembling that of an eagles’ bit quickly gave way to fleshy, gray bat wings. My hands looked like talons, and my skin had patches of scales peppered across my forehead and neck.

I was absolutely shocked and horrified of what was supposedly me. Dumbfounded, I stuttered. “Wha-what is this?!” I turned back to him “It’s you. The part you didn’t know existed, until now, that is.”

“I’m an abomination…” I muttered to myself. He approached me and extended his hand expectantly. I took a step back and gave him my best “You wanna die?” look.

“The knife.”

“What about it?”

“Hand it over.”

“No.”

“What?”

“I said ‘No’. You deaf?”

He sighed. I was obviously testing everyone's patience today, and I sort of reveled in that fact. “I want to look it over.”

“And lose my only weapon? I don't think so.”

He sighed, clearly growing frustrated and needed to work to maintain his composure, “I need to look it over to ensure that it hasn’t been cursed to harm whoever wields it, now give it here.”

He went to grab it, but I quickly side stepped him. He had a limp that hindered some of his movement, which was quite beneficial to me, since despite his issue, he was pretty fast. He cursed under his breath.

This was starting to get a little funny to me. “You could try saying ‘please’, you know.” I teased him, to which he growled in response.

“ _Please_ , may I have the knife?”

“Hmm…” I actually considered it and I decided that I should actually let him check. It did come from that monster’s corpse and could’ve been rigged after all. Last thing I needed was this dude to tell me “I told you so,” after I had gotten myself blown up or worse.

“Sure. I don't think I should let it blow _me_ up, instead of whatever it is that I'm trying to kill. You should try it first.” I smirked and handed him the weapon that had been one of my sources of my bravado. So much for having something to shank baddies with.

"Yes, and let it blow me up instead. How considerate of you." He muttered sarcastically as he pulled the wicked dagger from its sheath and gave it a once over, sliced the air with it a couple times, which made it glow a sickly green.

"True. It'd be shame, too. There's surprising shortage of goth know-it-alls these days. If you got blown up, who would take your place? Dante?"

"Ha! I doubt that he could. He's more keen on those magazines of his than actual books." V scrutinized the dagger for a bit longer before he nodded then sheathed it once more and handed it back to me; satisfied with the fact that there were no immediate repercussions from using it.

"I'm right here you know." Dante grumbled from where he sat, whilst reading another vulgar magazine. I simply gave him a big smile in response before turning my attention back to V.

“It’s okay then?"

He nodded an affirmative.

I glanced back at the mirror and was relieved that I looked like my normal self. Except for my eyes. They seemed to be light gray on the top half of each iris and the bottom was a deep emerald green, like my eyes were plucked out of my head and my irises were dipped halfway in green dye before the work bell rung. Someone must have taken the liberty of wiping my face clean while I was unconscious, because my makeup was no longer on my face at all, which revealed my light scattering of freckles, full, pink lips and long, brown eyelashes. My hair was windswept and looked even more like I had a flame cascading down my head to my shoulders.

My attention turned back to the men when I heard someone fake cough. “Done ogling yourself, gorgeous? We still have something to discuss.” Dante smirked as he said this and my face burned slightly.

“I was…” I found it difficult to explain it, for some reason I chewed on my bottom lip as I continued, “It’s just that my eyes didn’t look like that when I saw myself last. They were just a muddy looking gray, before.”

“It’s part of your awakening. You’ll find other changes as well, I’m sure. Now, let’s get back to another matter.” The ravenette explained with a tone of dismissal in his voice. “The nerve…” I thought.

“The reason we took up the search for you was about more than a rescue mission; You are a weapon and a deadly one at that. Your blood and mind can be used for power hungry demons to gain more control." Nero, whom had taken the liberty of perching himself on the arm of the couch, continued.

"That leads me to a question that I have for you, miss Arca --"

"Eden. Just call me Eden."

"Eden," V continued, walking over to stand in front of me and he crossed his arms over his well-toned chest, "We need to know more about what you know."

"Like what?" I urged him to keep going.

"First off, about your mother. Do you know where she's been? What she's doing or what she can do?"

I shook my head. “No. All I really remember about her is that _Rosa_ ran off with a man half her age when I was eight. She had me meet him once, before she 'went to work' one night a never came back, but she left a note to my father; it probably said some things that I would rather not know about both my mother and pop. I haven’t seen her since, and for her sake, she shouldn't show her face around me ever again.” My voice darkened a little towards the end and I clenched my fists regain control of my temper flare, while Dante and Nero looked like they suddenly felt very awkward. “Why do you want to know? Rosa doesn't matter to me anymore and I want nothing to do with her."

Dante was the next to interject "You should want something to do with her, because if we don't find her and her boy toy soon, the hellgate will be opened, and many more people will die."

With that, my throat ran dry and my stomach dropped. Rosa, just what had you gotten yourself into?


	3. Son of a Gun

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a long boi, but here you go. This work will probably alternate quite a bit between long chapters and short ones to satisfy the need of pacing plot development.

We were discussing what I knew about my mother. “Rosa used to have this thing where she’d frequently have dreams that came true, or she would answer a question that you didn’t even say or realized that you were actually thinking. Apparently, it’s a trait that runs in the women in her family. My younger cousin and I can do it, too.”  
V seemed slightly interested in that fact. “Strange… Maybe you and your family had a ‘magically inclined’ – if you will – ancestor at some point. It would explain why a demon would be drawn to your grandmother in the first place.”

  
“I have no clue…”

  
Nero was rummaging around in the kitchen and came back with a box of pizza and a few beers. He stopped in front of me and offered me a slice and a beer, which I happily accepted. Dante raised a brow at this. “Aren’t you a bit young to be drinking?”

  
“Only by a few years. I’m an adult, I can vote, so what’s the harm in a couple drinks? It’s not like I drink to get wasted each time. I get free drinks at the club I perform at every weekend, anyway.” Shrugging, I took a deep swig of the beverage to calm my frayed nerves. It tasted like piss water, but it did the trick, I suppose.

  
“Perform, huh? What kind of performances?” V’s tone was teasing as he asked this.

  
“I’m a musician. I play lead guitar in a band, or I will be the lead singer some nights, depending on what the venue asks for. Sometimes they want us to do themes, like lounge singing, and I’m the only one in my band that can sing like that. Other nights, we play rock or metal songs. Some are covers, but the rest are penned by yours truly.” His smug demeanor changed slightly when I said that, almost as if… no. I glared at him, finally understanding what he was asking “What did you think I meant?”  
“Hm? Oh, nothing.”

  
I glared at him as I took a huge bite of the cold pizza. If you asked me, cold pizza tastes way better than reheated pie.  
About half an hour later, they’re done interrogating me and I yawned loudly while I stretched leisurely across the back of the couch. I saw Dante staring at me from where he sat at his desk, and realized that he was staring down my shirt from the angle I bent myself at. I flipped him off, and returned to my previous position popping my neck then I downed the rest of my beer.

  
I turned when I heard a chair scrape across the floor and saw Dante pop up out of his lounging position. “Whelp,” He grunted as he stretched, and popped his back loudly in a few places, “I suppose I should show you where you’ll be staying until we figure things out. Come on.” I hopped down from the couch (it’s a tall couch and I’m really short. Don’t judge me) and followed after him. “Goodnight.” I called over my shoulder to Nero and V, as they were making their way out the door; I didn’t wait for a response.

  
We climbed a set of stairs that lead to a narrow hallway. From where I stood, I could see three doors. “The door on the right is my room. Right across from the that is the bathroom and the door next to that would be the spare room.” He twisted open the door to the bathroom and gestured to the small closet. “Towels are on the top and middle shelves, there’s tooth paste and an extra tooth brush on one of the lower shelves.” He continued to close the bathroom door and open the door to the room next to it flip on the light. “There should be spare clothes in the closet, courtesy of Lady and Trish. They also cleaned it up for you. They’ll be coming by sometime tomorrow to take you out shopping. Other than that, knock before trying to enter my room or the bathroom.”

  
“Thanks… You guys really coordinated this, huh?” I asked.

  
“Well, we couldn’t just send you back to Redgrave, there’s a giant demon tree sprouting from that hellhole.” He shrugged, as if the matter was just something that was only mildly inconvenient.

  
“I see.”

  
With that, I bid him a goodnight, walked into the room and closed the door behind me. Promptly, I locked the door as a subtle “And stay out.” After I walked over to the closet, I shrugged off my black biker jacket and put it on one of the wire hangers.

  
I emptied the pockets and found that I still had my cell phone, charger, wallet, keys, inhaler and a pack of gum I had in there. “Curious…” I muttered. I wondered why they didn’t just take everything, but shrugged, and decided to be thankful that they didn’t instead. Setting all of these on my night stand, I plugged my phone charger into the wall and began charging my phone. The lock screen lit up, showing a picture of Megan and I together, our arms draped over each other’s shoulders and our heads tilted towards the other as we smiled for the camera, before the screen went black again. I felt a pang deep in my chest.

  
The guilt and grief would stick with me for the rest of my life, that I knew. I just wished that I had thought about her. Was she in the crowd of people running away, or was she killed when the building got leveled? Perhaps she saw me gunning it down the street and cursed my name – no. Megan wouldn’t have done that, if she saw me fleeing right before she died, she was probably thankful that I wasn’t getting cut down just yet, but I couldn’t keep thinking about that right now. The grieving could come later, now… now I had to channel it into cold vengeance. Now, I rest and let the rage, grief and guilt harden into a cold, unyielding blade.

  
Just then, I felt the appearance of a large weight against my back. I turned around and saw the pommel and crossbar of a huge sword sticking out of a large sheath that appeared. On a whim, I gripped the handle and drew it from where it lay waiting. It thrummed in my hands as I examined it closely. The handle itself felt both hot and cool at once, and the energy felt both like a warm embrace but also dark and sinister. An inscription was imbedded into the blade, which started as black as midnight and gradually turned pure white the closer it got to the tip. The inscription read “Ad Scutum de Eden”.

  
“To the Shield of Eden” Muttering under my breath, I admired the pommel which had the Star of David on one side and a satanic pentagram on the other both sides looked like mother of pearl marble except from shifting like a pearl, it shifted from pearl to a deep black. Carefully, I returned the sword to its sheath and slung it off of me and propped it up between the closet door and the corner to keep it from clattering to the ground during the night. I didn’t want Dante to barge in here, thinking that I was being attacked.  
The prospect of getting my clothes off seemed too inviting to refuse, so I carefully peeled off my clothes and I kicked them over into the corner, all the while inspecting my body for injuries that I may have missed. Walking over to the dresser and opened a drawer to reveal six different tops. A halter, a leather vest, two silky white dress shirts, a sheer black long sleeved shirt, and a silky white night shirt.

  
Taking the night shirt out of the drawer, I slipped it over my head and it flowed down to my hips. I checked myself out in the mirror and noticed that I had noticeably more muscular legs than they were before. I lifted the shirt slightly and noticed that my chub had significantly decreased, and my stomach was definitely more toned than before. “Weird, but damn… I’m looking pretty good!” I said, with a slight chuckle. Great. Now I’m preening in the mirror.

  
Turning off the lights, I pulled up the covers on the bed and laid down. As soon as my head hit the pillow, my world went black and my mind went blank.  
What felt only minutes later, light was shining through the window and burned my eyelids. Blinking them open, I squinted against the bright light. My muscles felt incredibly stiff and sore as I stretched out across the bed. I flopped over and turned on my phone’s screen to check the time. 9:37 A.M. blinked back at me on the screen and turned back off again, as if it didn’t want to be awake either. After another nice, long stretch I slipped out of bed and shimmied on my leather jeans from yesterday and stepped out of the door.

  
Loud snoring could be heard from Dante’s bedroom, so I figured that it was safe to just enter the bathroom. With the door closed and locked behind me, I quickly pulled a clean towel from the closet and hung it over towel rack and turned the shower on. I pulled my phone out and opened my music app, with a couple taps, my phone was playing smooth jazz just a touch louder than the running shower.

  
Once the water reached that point of almost scalding that I love, I stripped down to my birthday suit and reveled in how the water was loosening my taught muscles as I stepped into the shower. I picked up a bottle of shampoo and dumped a small dollop into my hand. “Ugh. I’ll smell like a dude for a whole day. Hopefully this doesn’t strip too much dye from my hair.” I thought aloud, as I worked it into a lather and rinsed it out of my hair.

  
Finishing my shower with some of Dante’s conditioner and lathering my body in some of the shampoo before rinsing off and turning off the water, I wrapped myself in the towel and made my way over to the sink and mirror. With a hand towel I wiped the mist off of the mirror, which revealed my sopping wet hair and face as I placed the towel back where it belonged. I took a comb and ran it through my hair, before settling to just shake out and scrunch my hair and let it look messy, but untangled. “You and your devil-may-care hair…” my dad would mutter whenever he saw me getting ready in the morning.

  
Turning off my music, I opened the door to see a slightly disheveled Dante leaning against the wall across from me. He smirked when he saw me. “Morning, beautiful.” I smirked “Huh. You have some decent observational skills, there.” Dante chuckled slightly, obviously not expecting that response.  
“Sleep well?” He asked as he gave me elevator eyes. I decided to ignore the fact that he was obviously checking me out – I would check myself out, too. “Fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow, so I guess I did.”

  
“That’s good… So about that sword in your room…” He trailed off, watching my reaction and was satisfied when he saw that look of understanding on my face. “Wicked, right? It just appeared there. It has an inscription on the blade and it looks both hellish and angelic.”

  
“’To the Shield of Eden’, I know. Any idea why it might say that?”

  
I shook my head. “No, I only just discovered that I’m a bastard yesterday, you think that I know what the hell that’s about?” I paused a moment considering what this could mean, “Maybe… Maybe it has to do with my last name? It’s my mother’s. ‘Edenshield’. Maybe we could ask Chuckles if he knows anything or if he could look into it?”

  
He hummed “Yeah, maybe. Well, I need to go piss.”

  
“Thanks for the extra info, weirdo.” I muttered and stepped out of the way.

  
“Any time.” And with that, he closed the door.

  
A couple hours later, there’s a knock on the door to the guest bedroom. “Hey! Lady and Trish are here! They’re waiting for you downstairs.” Came Dante’s voice from the other side of the door then the sound of the floorboards creaking as he stalked off to somewhere else. I checked my reflection to make sure that I didn’t look like an idiot.

  
I had grabbed the sheer black shirt with my lacy black bra. It exposed just enough of the skin underneath it to be boarder-line scandalous, but didn’t actually reveal too much. The shirt stopped just above my belly button, showing off the piercing there and a smattering of freckles that covered me from head to toe. The black pre-ripped jeans (but the rips looked real) exposed my knees and had wear and tear scuffs. The waist band came just where my lower back started and complemented my curves nicely. The cut of the jeans revealed the toned muscles above my hips and the giant, red dragon tattoo that started on my upper left thigh and spread across my left side and the lower left of my back before ending just below where the shirt covered me. I pulled on my black combat boots and slipped on my jacket before turning to the corner where the sword lay.  
On a whim, I secured the strap over my shoulder, and made my way out of the bedroom door and down the stairs. Once there, I saw a woman with black hair and red and blue eyes waiting impatiently while a beautiful blonde chatted with her. The blonde rested her hand on the other’s forearm, and gave an affectionate look before she spotted me walking towards them.

  
“So, I hear that I’m joining the Badass Ladies Club for today. I’m Eden.” With smirk I curtsied and I got a light chuckle from the blonde. “So you are. I’m Trish and this is my girlfriend Lady.”

  
“We’re supposed to take you around a few stores and make sure that you get outfitted with weapons and get what you need for your ‘womanly needs’. Or so Dante says.” Lady said. She had a slight attitude when quoting Dante, but it was obvious that they were actually good friends.  
“I won’t need a whole lot. Just a few things and I should be good for a while. We should go and get some lunch while we’re at it, I’m starving.” I gripped my stomach as I said that.

  
We hit it off nicely, becoming fast friends after answering all of their inquiries that I could. I wasn’t the only one that was armed, Lady and Trish were both armed with pistols and Trish had her own sword strapped to her back. After eating, we went to a clothing store and I bought myself some nice new clothes, before we moved on to a supercenter and stocked up on things like shampoo, conditioner, other hair stuff, toothpaste and much more. It wasn’t until Lady called across the aisle where things got a little tense.

  
“Hey, Eden, what kind of pads do you need?”

  
I tensed at the question, for it was one I dreaded answering if I ever ended up getting married. “Oh, no, I’m good on those!” I chuckled nervously, Trish gave me an odd look. “Really? I didn’t think that Dante really kept those on hand.”

  
“He doesn’t, it’s just that… I don’t need them.”

  
“You’re a girl, of course you do!” Lady responded and a look of understanding crossed Trish’s features.

  
“I don’t because…” I took a deep breath before whispering “I’ve never _bled_.”

  
Lady looked confused, then she seemed to understand. “Oh. I… I’m sorry.”

  
“We don’t know why, the doctors put a scope up there and everything developed perfectly, it’s just that I never had a period or fertility period. I might never.”

  
Trish chuckled next to me. “That’s because you only recently ‘Awakened’ and not even fully at that. You’re more Angel and Demon than you are human. Demons go through heat, and I think Angels do as well. In about seven months, you’ll need something very different, if you catch my drift.” She explained this so casually, as if this wasn’t an even more unpleasant fact of life being burdened onto me. She winked at Lady, whom now had a light dusting of pink across her cheeks.

  
Either way, I thanked her with my face now resembling a tomato, and they poked a little fun at me as we hopped into Trish’s car. “It’s like being horny all the time, but you also feel like killing everything around you.”

  
“Those would be two new feelings then.” I sheepishly said, as I started feeling a little nauseous at the prospect of actually wanting to throw myself at random men. Staring out the window, I zoned out trying to think of anything else aside from the impending discomfort. “So why in seven months?”

  
“All demons go through heat at the same time. It’s the only time a demon is ever fertile.”

  
I hardly noticed that we had pulled up behind a van, until both women were on the outside of the car and were snickering. Lady glanced back at me. “You coming?” “Oh, uh, yeah!” I hollered and hopped out of the car.

  
We walked over to the side of the van were a blue neon sign read “Devil May Cry”. “Is ‘Devil May Cry’ a franchise or something? I never heard of it before.”

  
“Something like that. This is just the mobile one that Nero and Nico operate. “Who’s Nico?” I asked as Trish knocked twice and opened the door. “Nico, we’re here!” she shouted into the van as we entered. Loud music was booming over the stereo system, as I noticed a woman with a welding shield over her face. She slipped it off, and put down a prosthetic arm that she was working on before taking a remote and turning off the stereo.

  
“Howdy, girls!” She greeted them warmly then her mischievous eyes landed on me, and she gasped happily. “Well I’ll be! You must be Lil’ Miss Triple T! Gosh, you’re even cuter in person!” She came around the counter and pinched my cheeks. “Yer big brother’s told me all about you!”

  
This was not what I was expecting at all. I walk into a new place and a new face already knew my childhood nickname. “You know Mark?” “Hell yeah, I do! He brings me a lot of business, you know. With that father of yours and your brother being a hunter himself, he needs the best! He’s a real cutie, you know.”

  
“Wait, hunter? No, he’s studying business in college right now. I think we somehow got things really confused, here.” As if on cue there’s another two knocks on the van door and in walks my older brother himself, but he was much different from when I last saw him a week ago. Instead of his usual khaki pants and polo shirt that he wore like a total nerd, he’s wearing a green leather vest open over a black muscle shirt and camo cargo pants. His hair was no longer neatly groomed, but total mess of brown hair that stuck out in every direction. His deep and heavy smattering of freckles were completely visible on his arms and face and a deep scar started from just above his right brow and ended under his left cheekbone and his skin was visibly tanner than a week ago.

  
“Yo, Nico! I’m here to pick up my gun. You said it’d be ready by,” he trailed off when he saw me “… now. Oh shit, this is awkward.”

  
“You don’t say.” I quip back sarcastically. “You have some explaining to do right now, you do realize that right?”


	4. Taking Up Arms

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Plot development, protective brothers and some V/Eden time ahead. It's another long boi. Eden has a very... "interesting" - shall we say - combat style.

Just then, V walks in and closes the door behind him and noticed the tension in the roomy van. “You two know each other?” He asked my brother with smug smirk.

 

“I would think that I’d be familiar with my own brother, but I suppose not. What happened to ‘Studying business an hour away’?” If looks could kill, then Mark would have been one dead son of a gun with the glare I aimed at him.

 

“Well, I am an hour away, technically, and I did go off to college at first, but I dropped out after a couple months. I was finding hunting and doing jobs for Morrison and Dad more enjoyable, so… yeah.”

 

“Did you know about mom and what she was and what you are this whole time?” Cutting straight to the point, Mark visibly flinched, before scratching his neck. “For over ten years.”

 

“TEN YEARS??!! Did dad know?! Why have I been so in the dark about this?!” I couldn’t help but to shout. Being kept in the dark this long was so stupid and outrageous, to me. I had a right to know. It directly affected me and even put me into danger.

 

“Yes. We were trying to keep you from being needlessly thrown into danger, Arcaccia. Please, it was for your own good.”

 

“So much for that! I was kidnapped from school, took a guitar through my gut, and was almost forced to sell my soul to some demon prick! If had known, and maybe been taught how to use whatever power I have, I probably would’ve been able to save myself.” I placed my hands on my hips as I chastised him.

 

He didn’t answer, but instead gave me big ol’ puppy dog eyes. “I’m sorry.”

 

“You should be.” I huffed before a thought just occurred to me. “If you’ve known all this time, and knew that I was kidnapped, why did those two white haired weirdos come to save me in place of you? I wouldn’t trust my little sister near that Dante character for an hour, but I spent a whole night at his shop.”

 

A fire seemed to ignite in his silver orbs as I said that. “… He didn’t try anything, did he?” His fists clenched as he growled this. Mark had saved me from nearly being assaulted a few times in the past by just getting there right before things could go too far, so he was used to being overly protective of me. I was a trouble magnet; it followed me everywhere.

 

“He’s a huge pervert, but he didn’t do anything.” I said, raising a brow at his demeanor, which by judging Lady and Trish’s reactions, I wasn’t the only one that was a bit concerned. Mark stared me in the eyes a moment, before relaxing once he had decided that I was telling the truth. “Good.”

 

He then smiled. “Still love me, sis?” I glared at him and huffed. “Oh come on! I’m your big brother!” He came up to me and pulled me into a bone-crushing hug. “Stop that!” I shouted and smacked his chest, but he paid that no mind as he picked me up so that my feet dangled just above the floor. “You love me! You love me! You…” He chanted as he swung me from side to side while I cussed him out. “Fuck off! Put me down!”

 

“Oh, fine.”

 

He set me down and chuckled until I punched him hard in the stomach, he doubled over in pain. “Ugh! What was that for?!”

 

“For being a dumbass, that’s what!”

 

The girls laughed heartily, and V smirked as they watched the spectacle that was any typical interaction between myself and Mark. I couldn’t help the grin on my face, as I gave him a hug. “There we go!” He bellowed.

 

“I’m still pissed off, you know.”

 

“That’s what older brothers are for.”

 

I pulled away and turned to Nico. “So you make weapons, yeah?”

 

“Make ‘em?! Honey, I invent my own and improve the work of others. Yer looking at an expert craftswoman.” Nico exclaimed as she crossed her arms over her chest and smirked cockily. “My bad, so do you think you could get me outfitted with some proper weapons? This sword on my back is cool and all, but I don’t know how to use it at all, really.”

 

Nico immediately went into business mode. “Sure, what are we talking about?”

 

“Handguns and maybe a dagger? Pop has been teaching me how to use those ever since I had enough coordination to hold one and listen to directions.”

 

Nico raised a brow at this. “That small?”

 

Mark chimed in, “Yeah, our dad has a decent amount of enemies. If you think that I’m overprotective of my sister, then you should see our dad. He gave himself a full head of gray just worrying for her.” He chuckled as he said this.

 

“Oh, I’ve seen him.” Nico smirked and turned to me, “So yer the one that gave ‘em all that gray?”

 

“What can I say? I’m a giver.”

 

Nico gave me an amused hum before continuing. “Well, I think I have just the things you need. Gimme a sec.” She opened a cupboard under a counter and rummaged around for a few seconds and produced a .45 caliber pistol, a revolver and a short sword. “What do you think of these?”

 

The revolver caught my eye so I picked it up and turned it over in my hand. “May I?” Asking for her permission, to which she gave me a nod, before I disassembled the gun. I held the barrel up to the light, and noticed that on the inside it had far more grooves than the traditional revolver and was around ten inches long, which meant that each shot would be much more accurate than your everyday handgun. The hammer was given a large wing, that made it easily accessible in a pinch, and the gun sported a much wider than average cylinder that had thirteen chambers, which was way more than what's normal. Reassembling the amazing piece of fire power and setting it down, I turned to the rest of the weapons presented to me.

 

Looking the other two weapons over, they looked masterfully crafted and like they packed some serious punch, but then my eyes trailed over to a corner of the van, where I noticed a wicked staff. One end had a stiletto blade while the other end was flat. I walked up to it and trailed my fingers over the shaft. “What’s this little beauty?”

 

“Oh, that’s just a little project I’ve been workin’ on.” She came over, and showed me how it works. The grip in the middle could go between a locked or unlocked position that would allow the user to spin around it with ease. The flat end was actually spiked and would dig into the ground giving the pole traction, while the stiletto knife on the end could be used as a spear. The shaft was made of some of the best steel I had ever seen, felt incredibly sturdy. “And check this out.” She twisted a handle a half a foot above the grip and the knife rapidly went back and forth like one of those electric knives used to cut up a smoked ham.

 

“I love it.” I said as she turned off the blade. “What does it run on?” Nico grinned, “It runs on this little baby.” She opened a small hatch to produce a hard, swirling black ball no bigger than my thumb. “This thing runs on demonic energy that it consumes whenever a demon dies close enough to it.”

 

I stared at her a second then the staff before smirking “Hell yeah.”

 

“So, you want it?” She asked with a self-satisfied smirk.

 

“Depends on the price tag. I’m also considering that revolver.” I said with a smile. I loved the thing already, but I wasn’t about to break the bank over it.

 

Mark came over then. “We could put it on dad’s tab. He pays for all of my weapons and repairs, so he shouldn’t mind you getting your first weapons on him.”

 

I looked over at Nico, who was already writing something down in a large, battered ledger. “Gotcha. I’ll send him the bill, then I’ll get these finished up and y’all will be good to go. And Mark, you were supposed to pick up your pistol three days ago. I got it for you right here.”

 

She finished up her writing with a grin, “There, now bring that staff over here. I wanna do some finishing touches.” I hoisted up the staff, which was surprisingly light and well balanced, and brought it over to her table.

 

Nico grabbed the staff and put her welding mask back on before pulling a heavy curtain over across the workstation. “This’ll take just a moment.”

 

A few minutes pass, and Trish decides to start up a conversation. “So how did you get the nickname ‘Triple T’?”

 

I laughed a bit before saying “Long story short, a bunch of older boys in our neighborhood mistook me for being older than Mark, and the started calling me ‘The Triple Threat’.”

 

“Why did they think that you were older?” Lady chimes in.

 

“There’s a few reasons. First off, Mark is only ten months older than me. Second was that I was tall, pretty, smart and they thought that I was nice. Mark was really short and they knew that he was around eight, so they figured that I was their age because of how much taller I was than him. The nickname got changed to ‘Triple T’ and it just stuck. People didn’t start calling me ‘Eden’ until I…” I trailed off at the thought of Megan, who had needlessly died, but I felt like I needed to honor her memory, somehow. “I met this girl named Megan Jacobs and we became best friends. Everyone may have called me ‘Triple T’, but the good friends I made started calling me ‘Eden’ because of her.”

 

“Speaking of Megan, is she alright?” Mark asked, with hope in his eyes. The guilt churned in my stomach as I was reminded that ever since we were little, Mark had the biggest crush on Megan while Megan liked him back. He was planning on asking her out to dinner the next time he got a break from college, but it would seem that he was a little too late.

 

“It depends on what it’s like in heaven, bud.” My voice cracked, “She died in the attack.” I fought the tears that so desperately wanted to be shed, and I hugged my heartbroken brother. “I’m so sorry.” I whispered.

 

His hands trembled as we held each other, and Lady and Trish busied themselves elsewhere while V suddenly became very interested with the book of poetry in his hand.

 

We stayed like that until the curtain opened, I patted his back a few times and he pulled away; wiping the tears from his eyes. He loved Megan more than I did, and I admired his strength to resist ugly crying right here and now. Nico, whom had apparently heard the whole thing gave us a sympathetic smile.

 

“Here, hon. I got 'em all ready for you.” She handed Mark his pistol, and me my new revolver and staff with the necessary accessories to holster them to my person. “Thank you, Nico. You’ve been very helpful.” I said, and gave her the best smile I could muster with the suddenly depressing tension weighing upon us.

 

I gave the staff another onceover and noticed a fresh, new engraving on it. “’SP Pro.’? What does that stand for?” Nico giggled as she answered, “It stands fer the ‘Stripper Pole Prototype’!” She smirked as she saw my face become slightly pink. “Oh, come on. Don’t be like that, dressed the way you are, I didn’t have ya figured for a prude.”

 

With a chuckle, I responded. “Well, I like contradicting themes, but the name is fitting.”

 

I felt a sudden prickle of tension on the back of my neck and glanced over at the others. They all seemed to feel it, too. With a glance out of the window, I could see that it was now very dark out. “Just a quick question, but are demons more active at night or something?”

 

“Usually, yes.” V clapped his book shut as the van suddenly shook violently and more sudden bangs on top it followed. The ravenette stumbled forward a bit and into me. He briefly held onto my shoulders as he regained his footing, then let me go. I caught a hint of pink dusting his cheeks, but the situation didn’t exactly give me time to examine his face further. “Oh, fuck!” Nico screamed as a large scythe suddenly pierced the top of the van next to her head. She ducked down and hopped to the front of the van and started it. “Hold onto yer asses!” She hollered back as we peeled off down the empty street, while V fell on top of me and we were thrown to the floor with the sudden motion.

 

A couple blocks of twisting and swerving later the demons that had been on top of the van flew off and were now forced to chase after us. V and I somehow managed to untangle ourselves in the chaos. “If we just outrun them, they’ll only attack other people!” I shouted over the stereo and creaking of the van. “We need to stop and fight them!”

 

Mark took my side on this, “She’s right, we can’t let them wander the streets, or we’ll get another situation like in Redgrave!” Nico turned off onto a side street and slammed hard on the breaks and almost threw us all forward. “Y’all better know what yer doing!” She hollered as the others hopped out. Mark stopped and turned to me. “Stay in the van.” He growled, before hopping out after Lady and Trish.

 

“Like hell I am!” I shouted as I hopped out and into the fray. Whipping out my revolver, I loaded it then snapped the cylinder back into place. I took aim at some of the approaching demons and I fired a couple shots and was satisfied when I saw two of them burst into clouds of dust. I unleashed a few more rounds into a few bug-like ones, as Mark pulled out a sniper rifle and climbed on top of the van. “Dammit, Arcaccia! I said to stay inside!” He shouted as he shot a few of the approaching demons.

 

“You don’t get to tell me what to do!” I shouted, as I shot down two more demons. I heard a growl come from behind me, and saw the panther from yesterday leaping off of V’s shoulders and right at me. Or so I thought. The midnight cat flew right over my head and onto a demon that was approaching me from my blind spot. “Thanks!” I shouted and shot at some of the demons that were starting to gang up on Lady and Trish. Nico had a semi-automatic machine gun pointed out of the window of the van and opened fire on the horde of fast-approaching demons. The panther and a weird bird creature were working together to take the attention off of the two women, although they were holding their own pretty well.

 

“Get back in the van, Arcaccia! You’re going to get hurt!” Mark said in between gunshots, ignoring him I took cover behind the van to reload my revolver, and almost came nose to nose to V, whom had also briefly taken cover. My face heated up from the sudden proximity whilst he smirked in response. I turned away to quickly load each chamber and got back into the fight.

 

Despite our best efforts we were slowly becoming more and more swarmed, almost as if every demon that had been prowling in the general vicinity of the city had decided to come out to play. When my pistol clicked instead of letting out a loud bang I cursed. Without any time to duck back into cover to reload, I pulled the Stripper Pole off of my back and starting using some of my newfound agility to take down demons.

 

I turned on the stiletto knife and started hopping around and cutting down one bug-like demon after another, until I was grabbed from behind and found myself pulled into big fucker. Without even thinking, I pounded the cleated end of the pole into his foot, which caused it to loosen its hold on me enough to elbow him in the throat and force him to release me to clutch its throat. With the pole rooted into the demon’s foot, I quickly unlocked the grip and swung around it to deliver a flying kick to its chest.

 

It toppled over with a shriek and while I landed on my feet a yard away. Right as I was about to deal the killing blow, a bullet ripped through the demon's bug-like skull when it lifted its head off of the ground. It howled as it dispersed into a pile of dust. I looked over to where the bullet came from, and saw Mark, glaring at me before he continued picking off more demons on the urban battlefield.

 

Eventually, the onslaught ended with dust covering the streets and a few scrapes and bruises on each of us, save for Nico, V, and Mark. I wouldn’t put any money on thinking that we exterminated the demon infestation in this city, but something told me that it would be a lot safer than usual to be out and about at night for the next couple of days. It wouldn’t last long, though. Weaker people tend to take up doing evil things in the absence of demons. Just a fact of life when people don’t let the strong keep them safe from those types.

 

I huffed as I caught my breath, and went to lean against the side of the van, but accidentally leaned into V, who looked at me startled. “Sorry.” I muttered between pants. The adrenaline had run its course at this point and left me exhausted. He smirked and pulled me into him as he guided me into the van. Mark didn’t miss this, however and grumbled something about the “bro code”. I snorted. “Sorry if Mark gives you any headaches. He’s a huge dork.” I said as I lowered myself onto one of the seats in the van.

 

V smirked at this, before glancing at Mark, who was obviously killing V several times over in his head with the look he was giving us. “Mark, he was just being nice. Don’t ruin it.” I chastised my brother for his behavior, knowing that this was just going to irritate him more, if not for the fact the V was still had a gentle hold on my upper arm. That’s what sisters are for, after all.

 

Nico came back from her work station, supposedly to put away the gun she had been using. “Alright. Lemme drop y’all off at Trish’s car.” She hopped into the driver’s seat and looked between V and myself before she gave me a wink. My face flushed, as I realized that V was still staring at me before he let go of my arm with a self-satisfied smirk.

 

“ _This is going to be the longest five blocks of my life_.” I thought to myself.


End file.
